A control system for controlling consumption of energy in an environment including a controller having a processor and a real time clock, the real time clock being configured to coordinate operations of the processor with timing of the designated peak period, the processor being configured to determine a minimum pre-operating period and to signal an air conditioning and/or space heating system to enter an operating state for at least the minimum pre-operating period before the designated peak period begins and enter a non-operating state after the designated peak period begins; an operating program having processing parameters and processing procedure for determining the minimum pre-operating period, wherein the processing parameters and processing procedure comprise determining the minimum pre-operating period using thermal mass of the environment, costs for the consumption of energy, and efficiency of the air conditioning and/or space heating system.

An air conditioning system control device 10 includes: a switching unit 11 that, when a parameter relating to the indoor environment in which the air conditioning system operates does not satisfy a first condition while the air conditioning system is operating in a first operation mode that is an operation mode in which setting values computed on the basis of a prediction model are used as the setting values for the air conditioning system, switches the operation mode of the air conditioning system to a second operation mode that is an operation mode in which the computed setting values are not used as the setting values for the air conditioning system.

A HVAC controller includes a housing and one or more heat-generating components contained within the housing. The heat-generating components cause a temperature inside the housing to exceed a temperature outside the housing. The controller includes a temperature sensor configured to measure the temperature inside the housing and a controller event detector configured to detect, for at least one of the heat-generating components, a controller event that generates heat inside the housing. The controller further includes a temperature compensation module configured to identify a steady-state temperature gain associated with the detected controller event, to calculate a temperature offset using a summation of the steady-state temperature gain, to determine the temperature of the building zone outside the housing by subtracting the temperature offset from the temperature measured inside the housing, and to store the temperature offset.

Disclosed are methods for at least approximating any one or any combination of system targets of a) reducing the average energy expenditure for keeping at least one primary compartment of a building within a desired temperature range by means of active

e air conditioning, or b) reducing temperature variations during a typical 24-hour cycle within said at least one primary compartment of said building, or c) reducing one or both of the average temperature or the peak temperature of said at least one primary compartment of said building.

The invention concerns predominantly enclosed spaces, typically buildings, which are at least exposed to directionally and temporally varying levels of solar electromagnetic radiation as well as temporally varying levels of ambient air temperature and ambient air flow velocity and direction. Such a building comprising at least one primary compartment and at least one secondary compartment, and wherein said primary compartment predominantly serves to achieve the primary purpose of the building.

The disclosed methods are furthermore at least in part based on at least one electronic controller, which is able to one or both of a) controlling means to modulate the amount of passive air flow to and from said at least one secondary compartment, and b) controlling means to modulate the amount of actively driven air flow to and from said at least one secondary compartment, and said electronic controller furthermore comprising at least one, at least partially descriptive, analytical and/or, numerical, and/or reduced order model to at least approximately compute, i.e. predict, the thermal behavior of said building, and said controller using said at least partially descriptive model to derive control signals suitable to at least approximate said at least one system target. In some embodiments the disclosed methods are at least partially incorporated in a home automation system, including optionally internet connectivity.

In some embodiments the disclosed methods are at least partially capable of increasing the typical lifetime of some components of buildings and thus reducing resources associated with maintaining at least some buildings functional.

A power management system includes a power conditioner configured to condition and perform power factor correction on the electrical power supplied to the main circuit; an inverter, configured to receive direct current (DC) electrical power from a renewable source, and supply alternating current (AC) power to a main circuit that supplies power to an air conditioning system; and a controller configured to profile, using a power profiling meter, electrical power supplied to the main circuit; and modify operations of the air conditioning system or a battery management system based on the profiled electrical power available.

A system for acquisition and storage of data relative to BACnet objects of a BACnet standard HVAC system having BACnet network, where BACnet objects each generate change data upon occurrence of a change in a value thereof and a controller receives and concatenates the change data of the plurality of BACnet objects into payloads encapsulated into system specific data packets conforming to the BACnet data packet standards and transmitted over the BACnet network. The system also has a data conversion unit receiving the system specific data packets, retrieving the change data therefrom and generating database write commands including the change data. The system also comprises a main data acquisition database in data communication with the data conversion unit and receiving the database write commands therefrom. The main data acquisition database stores the data relative to all data changes of the standard BACnet objects over time.

An information processing apparatus, based on a data set including a combination of information indicating a situation, information on the comfort of a user, and information on power consumption when an air conditioner has been operated, executes a process of determining an operation setting according to a situation when the air conditioner is operated, the comfort when the air conditioner is operated, and a condition related to the power consumption when the air conditioner is operated.

A HVAC control system comprising a user interface adapted to receive comfort feedback from a user. A processor is adapted to receive the comfort feedback and input data corresponding to one or more comfort factors and respective values of the comfort factors. The processor is adapted to build a comfort model for the user based on the comfort feedback and the input data, with the comfort model correlating a comfort score to one or more values of one or more of the comfort factors. The processor is configured to adjust one or more functions of an HVAC unit to vary one or more comfort factors such that a predetermined comfort score is achieved. An associated method and an associated system are also provided.

The current application is related to environmental-conditioning systems controlled by intelligent controllers and, in particular, to an intelligent-thermostat-controlled HVAC system that detects and ameliorates control coupling between intelligent thermostats. Control coupling can lead to inefficient HVAC operation. When control coupling is detected, a settings-adjustment directive is sent to at least one intelligent thermostat to adjust one or more intelligent-thermostat settings, including an HVAC-cycle-initiation delay parameter, swing parameter, and a parameter that indicates whether or not an intelligent thermostat should first obtain confirmation or permission before initiating an HVAC cycle.

An air conditioner is provided. The air conditioner includes a display, a storage configured to store power consumption information and time information which are required to increase or decrease an indoor temperature by a unit temperature according to an outdoor temperature, a sensor, and a processor configured to predict, based on a desired temperature being input, at least one of a power consumption or a required time for the indoor temperature to reach the desired temperature by the sensor based on information stored in the storage, and provide at least one of the predicted power consumption or the required time through the display.